I'm just trying to figure it all out

[Pepperkorn]

I have no problem with anything the Devils organization has been doing if I take it all one move/non-move at a time.  The thing of it is -- all the moves when taken en mass - when looking at the big picture... I just don't see how it all fits together in a sapient progressive way.  In fact on the whole the management has been nothing short of erratic.

 

I cannot reconcile this team, and the decisions being made, with the Devils of old. 

 

Choices have always made sense to me in the past.  Most of the time they were exactly what I'd like to have done with the team and I am by no means a crowd pleasing group-think kind of person.  Big choices aligned with the small.  They just dont now.  If you do A. for the big picture then the small picture step B that must logically follow, never comes!  A whole non-conforming step is taken!  it's nto a clever twist or thinking outside the box -- it is a flat out DIVERGENT step.  What's worse it's not a tug of war --- it's the left hand just letting the right do whatever it wants -- HAPPILY AT THAT!  (and vice versa).

 

And BOTH SIDES ARE OVERLY CONSERVATIVE -- IN COMPLETELY DIFFERENT WAYS!!!! 

 

  I have nothing to say.  I can say NOTHING except lash out and contradict myself - no one can so I completely apologize to any and all I have trashed.  No one is wrong or right -- I was just frustrated because no one is getting specific enough or offering solutions that makes sense within the frame work of this current team and management -- but the fact is no one CAN.  It's not that the organization is defying logic -- it's that it's defying any sort of momentum whatsoever.

 

Well - the only sane read I can come up with is that Lou WAS a HUGE micro-manager.  I admit, I thought he was just a brilliant personnel guy who hired people with his exact same mindset and vision.  But it really is seeming like he ran the ENTIRE show previously and he is now actually letting others do their part without providing significant over-sight.  As if he said OK this has to work without me one day so I have to start stepping back now.

 

I'm just SURE there are guys who know what Lou would have done in the past -- but now that he's stepping back a little they don't know what to do.  they dont trust their own Lou-think... If it's what Lou wanted he'd tell them right?  So they do nothing or try to stay some stupid useless course. it's like everyone is taking the bull by the horns and leading it in a different direction - though everything is conservative and well thought out and justifiable -- nothing forms a successful cohesive plan.

 

I can't imagine Lou trying to change his whole modes operandi at this late stage.  He'd have to revert to fix it mode - the old Lou just couldn't let things fail like they are. 

 

I dont know... and I have no time to think it through properly.  Everyone just needs to start NOT being themselves but doing their best Lou impersonation.  it seems like Lou is saying do it your way!  Do as Lou DOES not as he says. 

 

Or shoudl they start doing as Lou says?  I cannot imagine anyone NOT listening to or following Lou's plan.

 

Right now I just imagine Lou at Panera saying -- Well guys,  I got nothin'  Do your own thing and we;ll see what happens.

 

that seems so UNLOU though.  I have no idea.

 

 

[eldon]

OK, here's how I see it.  A long (long) time ago, I was so PISSED when we traded Paul Ysebaert (sp?) for Lee Norwood.  PY was leading the AHL in scoring, traded for an aging 'rent a' defenseman.  Then PY never amounted to anything and I realized Lou and whomever he trusts with his hockey decisions is way more intelligent than I, a fan. 

I know this is over-simplifying, but I think when things are brought out on this forum, so-and-so sucks, Lou & co. already know it and can only do so much about it.

Honestly, I'm not sure if that's even why you started this post, but I thought I'd add my 2¢ anyway.  :-) 

[NewarkDevil5]

OK, here's how I see it.  A long (long) time ago, I was so PISSED when we traded Paul Ysebaert (sp?) for Lee Norwood.  PY was leading the AHL in scoring, traded for an aging 'rent a' defenseman.  Then PY never amounted to anything and I realized Lou and whomever he trusts with his hockey decisions is way more intelligent than I, a fan. 

I know this is over-simplifying, but I think when things are brought out on this forum, so-and-so sucks, Lou & co. already know it and can only do so much about it.

Honestly, I'm not sure if that's even why you started this post, but I thought I'd add my 2¢ anyway.  :-) 

 

Not for nothing, but Paul Ysebaert scored 30+ goals for the following 2 seasons in Detroit. I'd hardly call that amounting to nothing. Not saying it was a good or bad trade at the time, but with 20/20 hindsight, I'd say Ysebaert probably gave the Wings better service than Norwood gave us in his 28 games here.

[eldon]

Didn't realize or google him to see his stats. I do remember not long after the Giants beat the Bills in the Super Bowl, Bob Arsena announced a penalty on Scott Norwood which we wondered jokingly if he was as good or not as Lee in hockey. Or if Lee could've hit a 47 yarder...

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

Not for nothing, but Paul Ysebaert scored 30+ goals for the following 2 seasons in Detroit. I'd hardly call that amounting to nothing. Not saying it was a good or bad trade at the time, but with 20/20 hindsight, I'd say Ysebaert probably gave the Wings better service than Norwood gave us in his 28 games here.

 

Not to turn this into the Paul Ysebeart thread, but what I do remember about him at the time is that the Devils thought he had no defensive ability at all, and that concerned them.  He had a couple of good first years for Detroit (was actually a +44 his first full season with the Wings...think he got a lot of time on Yzerman's line that year), but was pretty meh the rest of his career.  He did manage to play in 532 NHL games, which is no small feat.   

 

Anyway, back on target...PK, I'm not going to lie, since the 2005-06 season began, there's been times when it's felt like Lou has been throwing things against the wall and seeing what sticks.  For years, he didn't have to do that, especially on defense, with Daneyko, Stevens, and Niedermayer (later Rafalski), and of course, he had Brodeur.  He also had a knack for finding the right players at the right time, like Neal Broten, Shawn Chambers, Alexander Mogilny, Vladimir Kozlov...and even though some moves didn't pay off (Gilmour and Ellett, Housley, some others), you could at least understand WHY the moves were made. 

 

I posted this a long time ago, but I think there's been times where Lou's been shaken by some of what has taken place, because for so long, it seems like damned near everything he touched turned to gold.  If Lou made the Ruutu move 10 years ago, Ruutu scores 10 goals down the stretch, and everyone says "OMG, how the hell does Lou KNOW this?!"  I think Lou was used to having various moves pay off, and having good reasons for making the ones that ultimately did not.

 

Losing all four of his top defensemen (then Paul Martin) has hurt, because the replacements haven't really been there from within (though Greene has worked out better than expected), and Lou has had to go the UFA route, I think way more often than he's ever wanted to, and I don't think that's comfortable for him at all.  I don't think he really wanted to re-sign Kovy, but VBK seemed to push for it, and at that point, I wouldn't be surprised if Lou, probably for the first time ever, said "Well, what the hell, I've never done the over-the-top ridiculous contract thing before, let's give this a try, nothing else I'm doing lately seems to be working out!"  I think if it was at all possible, Lou would take a detonator and blow this whole thing up and happily start from scratch, with Schneider, Zajac, and maybe a couple of other pieces still intact.  I think he's gotten so far out of his comfort zone, re:  how he likes to build a team, that he's probably not sure how to fix it...not saying it's broken beyond repair (it IS still competitive most nights), but I think there are days Lou probably has a Talking Heads, "Once In a Lifetime" moment and thinks "Well...how did I get here?"  

Edited March 6, 2014 by Colorado Rockies 1976

[LucifersDog]

I posted this a long time ago, but I think there's been times where Lou's been shaken by some of what has taken place, because for so long, it seems like damned near everything he touched turned to gold.  If Lou made the Ruutu move 10 years ago, Ruutu scores 10 goals down the stretch, and everyone says "OMG, how the hell does Lou KNOW this?!"  I think Lou was used to having various moves pay off, and having good reasons for making the ones that ultimately different.

 

Losing all four of his top defensemen (then Paul Martin) has hurt, because the replacements haven't really been there from within (though Greene has worked out better than expected), and Lou has had to go the UFA route, I think way more often than he's ever wanted to, and I don't think that's comfortable for him at all.  I don't think he really wanted to re-sign Kovy, but VBK seemed to push for it, and at that point, I wouldn't be surprised if Lou, probably for the first time ever, said "Well, what the hell, I've never done the over-the-top ridiculous contract thing before, let's give this a try, nothing else I'm doing lately seems to be working out!"  I think if it was at all possible, Lou would take a detonator and blow this whole thing up and happily start from scratch, with Schneider, Zajac, and maybe a couple of other pieces still intact.  I think he's gotten so far out of his comfort zone, re:  how he likes to build a team, that he's probably not sure how to fix it...not saying it's broken beyond repair (it IS still competitive most nights), but I think there are days Lou probably has a Talking Heads, "Once In a Lifetime" moment and thinks "Well...how did I get here?"  

 

 

CR 76 this is very astute observation. There comes a point in the aging process that one isn't as good as they once were but they maybe once as good as they always were. Lou has used up his once.

 

Lou needs to enjoy retirement before this eats him alive and he goes out not on the top but instead on the bottom.

 

Thanks Lou, enjoy what is left, it is time.